Baltic capitals in six days

Baltic capitals in six days

Hello all!

I am back! For the longest time. And I am going to tell you about my last trip (all the way in May…), which took me to the capitals of the three Baltic countries: Vilnius in Lithuania, Riga in Latvia, and Tallinn in Estonia.

This post will be part of a little series about the Baltic countries. In this case, the plan is to describe the trip’s itinerary, particularly the methods of travel between cities in the Baltic region. The following posts will cover Vilnius and Riga in more detail. Since my travel companion and I had been in Tallinn before, we spent less time there than in the other two. They were new places for both of us. Therefore, I do not have enough information about Tallinn to write an entire post about it. But if you are interested in the capital of Estonia, no worries, I will include a couple of tips about Tallinn in this post once we get there!

I think that was enough of an intro for this post. Let’s start!

Day 1: A night bus to Vilnius

If you have read this blog before or read my bio in the corner, you may know that I am from Finland. That is where our trip started, and more precisely, in Helsinki.

A while ago, the German bus company FlixBus started operating routes from Finland to Central Europe. Since then, I have been planning to take the bus, most likely a night bus, to Vilnius and travel through the Baltic countries. So that’s what we did.

I think we need a photo here, so this is a very bad one of the ferry XD

The first part of the trip was taken by a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. FlixBus collaborates with the ferry company Tallink, and the ferry tickets were a part of the bus tickets. Convenient! FlixBus had great instructions on how to board the ferry. We arrived at the terminal over an hour before departure, which was too early, but it was better than being late. Since our ferry was quite late in the evening, there were not many people with us. This was great because the ferry was pretty calm and we had a lot of space to hang around.

We arrived at Tallinn harbour a bit after midnight, and now it was our time to hop on the bus. Unfortunately, FlixBus did not have instructions on how this would happen and where we could find the bus. Only that the next stop in Tallinn was at the harbour, Terminal D, so we decided to go there. However, because we did not know the harbour well and it was in the darkness of the night, we were a bit lost. Thankfully, we met two other travellers who had travelled the same route before and knew where the bus stopped. So there we waited. And waited. And at the end, the bus was about one hour late.

Day 2: Arriving in Vilnius

The pros of traveling by night bus or night train are that the travel and accommodation are the same. You not only save money this way but also time, because while you sleep, you get from one destination to another. The con, of course, is that it is quite uncomfortable to sleep while sitting on the bus. There are ways to make the night easier: earplugs (or good headphones), a night mask, and a blanket. And if there is room, sleeping on two benches.

We arrived in Vilnius around 11 in the morning. We had heard positive things about Vilnius beforehand, which felt a bit exaggerated when we stepped out of the bus at the bus station from the last century. When we made our way to the old town and areas that were clearly the pride of the locals, we understood that the bus station had fooled us. Vilnius is a beautiful city that has many cool things to experience. Those positive words were deserved. I will write you more about my favourite things in Vilnius in the next blog post, so stay tuned for that!

Day 3: A bus from Vilnius to Riga

In the afternoon of the third day of our trip, we left Vilnius behind and took a bus to Riga, Latvia. This time, the bus company was Lux Express. I had never taken Lux before, but it was a lovely experience. Compared to FlixBus, Lux Express was definitely more luxurious. The toilet was clean, coffee and other refreshments were served, and every seat had a screen with the possibility to watch movies and series. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of good movies available. Unfortunately, we did not have suitable headphones, so no movies for us. But sooner than expected, around four hours had passed, and we arrived in Riga.

Day 4: A day in Riga

On the fourth day of our trip, we stayed to explore the charming Riga. We had a great time, and I will tell you all about our perfect day soon in a separate blog post.

However, one more thing about Riga: our accommodation. We had been super excited about it since we booked it —and for good reason! The place was called Urban Van Glamping, a hostel-like situation where guests stayed in camping vans instead of rooms. This was a pretty cool and unique experience. The camping vans were so adorable (see below)! Also, the quality of accommodation was pretty good; the only negative thing was a bit chilly temperature.

Our accommodation!!!!

Day 5: From Riga to Tallinn

After buying some breakfast strawberries at the Riga Central Market, we hopped on our next bus. FlixBus again. The bus took us via Pärnu to Tallinn in a bit over five hours. We had decided to get off the bus at the familiar stop at the harbour, Terminal D, and not at the Tallinn bus station. The harbour stop was closer to the old town where our accommodation was than the bus station, so it was more convenient for us.

We only had this afternoon to explore Tallinn, so of course, we did not have time to do many things. We visited Raeapteek, the oldest pharmacy in Europe, wandered the streets of the old town, and admired the views at the Kohtuotsa viewing points. Then we ended up having dinner at the medieval-themed restaurant Olde Hansa. The food was our favourite of the whole trip!

Our dinner at Olde Hansa

Day 6: A ferry back home

The last day of our trip, it was time to take the ferry across the gulf to home. Our ferry was Eckerö Line, so different than in the beginning of our trip. And it left from a different terminal than when we arrived in Tallinn. A bit of a panic when we realised we were at the wrong place. Luckily, the terminals were near each other. In ten minutes, we were at the right place, standing in a huge crowd waiting to board the ferry. It was nice to enjoy the sunny weather on the deck, but at the same time, we missed the emptiness of the night ferry.

And this was our trip to Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn! Hopefully, I have managed to give you some information and inspiration about traveling in the Baltic countries. We had an excellent time, and everything went really nicely. I fully recommend these three cities! As mentioned already, I will next write about Vilnius and Riga in more detail, so stay tuned for that! Thank you for reading this post, and until the next time!

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Baltic capitals in six days

Day 1: A night bus to Vilnius